May 14, 2009- I got a call at around 5:30 p.m from floren's officemate telling me that he had collapsed in the office. It usually takes me 15 minutes to get there, but I made it in 8 minutes, driving at 120kph. When I arrived, they told me an ambulance had taken him to Dubai Hospital. I went there and saw him in the E.R. He was complaining of a terrible headache and was vomiting and there was weakness on his left body. Since he has been hypertensive for 10 years I immediately assumed it was a stroke. But he was coherent, responsive and could still move so I thought maybe it was just a migraine attack (He had been complaining of terrible headaches for a month ) or maybe there were some problems with his contact lenses( -650 on both eyes) . They did a CT scan and the doctors confirmed what they had fearing all along, there was bleeding on his brain and the pressure was what's causing that headache. At 10:00pm, they transferred him to Rashid Hospital because they decided to do surgery on his brain. The whole time I was just praying, and before he went into surgery at 2:00 am (May 15), we recommitted our lives to the Lord. He went out of the Operating theater at around 6am, and the doctors just told me to wait and hope for the best. They did a ventriculostomy on him ( It is done by surgically placing a tube through the skull such that it terminates in the ventricleof the brain.) to drain the blood from his brain.
May 17 - His 41st birthday. He was still kept fully sedated. I talked with the doctors and they told me they found a giant carotenoid aneurysm on his optic nerve, it leaked. Chances are, they told me, if he would survive, he would have neurological defects and possibly be paralyzed. I just kept on praying to God for his healing.
May 24- Our daughter KZ's 3rd birthday. They told me they were going to do surgery on the 25th to clip his aneurysm and explained to me the risks.
May 25- They did not do the clipping as they found out that there were calcifications around the aneurysm and that to proceed with surgery would be fatal. I just kept thanking the Lord and continued to believe that He would heal floren.
May 27- They took him off sedation and he finally awoke.
May 29- Our 7th anniversary. He was still suffering from ICU psychosis which is quite normal for brain surgery patients and those who have been in the ICU for a while. But he still knew who I was, and asked where Kz was and even told me he loved me.
His recovery seemed to be doing very well. The doctors assessed him neurologically and could not find any damage. Praise God! Aside from the weakness on his legs (brought about by his being bedridden for 3 weeks), he was okay. I was so happy to have my husband back. But something changed. His spirit. He became closer to God, and he knew he had been forgiven. He said during those times he was sleeping, God dealt with him and called him to be a pastor. I was even happier.
He was moved to the ward on June 6 as if nothing happened. The doctors and nurses were all amazed at his progress and called it a miracle. About his unclipped aneurysm, the doctors told me there was only one solution to it and it was not available in Dubai and advised me to take him home to the Philippines and have it done there. As long as his blood pressure remained low and that he would refrain from any form of stress, he would be okay.
They discharged him on June 9. We went home, I had the chance to take care of him and pamper him. He played with Kz, we talked the whole night/day. We praised the Lord for everything and he told me he knows God loves him so much.
June 10- he complained again of a terrible headache at around 9pm. We went to bed, hoping his BP would go down (It was at 170/100). Once , he said "I love you bey". We just hugged. And at 11pm he started to vomit, we called the paramedics and he went into a seizure just when they arrived. They rushed him again to Rashid, did a CT scan, and it was when the doctors told me his brain is gone. His aneurysm had finally ruptured causing massive bleeding and there was just too much pressure on the brain. There was nothing they could do for him, to do surgery would be useless as the brain has been totally damaged and dead. He is still in the ICU, on artificial respirator. On June 17, they did the final brain stem test to confirm that the brain stem has no longer any function. (Neurological functions located in the brainstem include those necessary for survival (breathing, digestion, heart rate, blood pressure) and for arousal (being awake and alert).
The feelings that comes with this story need to be written in another post.
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